Saturday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Fallen apples

Scripture confined all things under the power of sin,
that through faith in Jesus Christ
the promise might be given to those who believe.

Before faith came, we were held in custody under law,
confined for the faith that was to be revealed.

“My Catholic wife worries all the time about whether something is right or wrong. Table grapes or California raisins? Ford or Chevy? Chinese or American? I’m a Protestant; I don’t understand her. Can you explain this to me?” the fellow asked.

“Certainly.” I said, “You see, it’s like this. Everything we do is either right or wrong!”

I’m being facetious. Not even Catholic life is that simple.

But that was Saint Paul’s experience of his pharisaic tradition, and it is the experience of many Christians, Catholic and Protestant. We live in constant dread of doing the wrong thing, of offending God by our unknown sins and unexamined faults. It seems that everything is “confined under the power of sin.”

There may be a psychological component. If, when we were children, our parents still suffered the moody fluctuations of youth, we sometimes found that nothing we did could please them; and, the next day, nothing we did could displease them. Becoming chronically anxious in such an unsettling emotional environment, we worried about the judgment that stands over us at every moment. It might even discover some long forgotten incident and blow us into hell! Like the bed you didn’t make this morning, or the dirty dish you put in the cabinet last month. What evil lurks in the heart of man? The shadow knows!

Faith teaches us to hear the story of Jesus and to accept its interpretation. He died on the cross and was raised up. That’s what happened. What does it mean? He died for our salvation; he has taken upon himself the guilt of all humankind. There is no condemnation now for those who are in Christ Jesus.

As we turn to him, allowing his grace to shine more and more deeply into the darkened places of our hearts, our anxieties are healed. Living by faith in Jesus means worrying less about what we may have done wrong and dedicating our lives to grateful generosity. We want to please God not because God is implacably miserable (as our parents were on occasion) but because God is so delighted by every generous act we do. For freedom Christ set you free. Therefore do not take upon yourselves again the yoke of slavery.